SOUL STIRRERS

This mix is an attempt to connect the dots between the many musical influences which created what we know as Soul Music.

The birth of Soul music, like most other forms of music, was slowly created over decades, until it became a set genre. But even then, its boundaries were unlimited, depending on the artist, their influences, landscape and social environment, as well as the producers, studios, record companies and the endless other factors which shaped the the sounds that developed.

To many people the musics and cultural development of the African American has been catalogued into a very simple minded categories. The concept of the black man, or black woman, or black music, for starters, is a strange one. I have never met a black person, a white one, a yellow one, nor a red one. Yet in the 21st century we still refer to African Americans as Black people playing black music. Looking back on the films of the early 20th century you see the same bias we have yet to overcome. The black man in his tight fitting cliches of Funky, Soulful or Jazzy. Entertaining us with their zany antics, that are not aligned to the "white" man and his enlightened development. Yet, when you take a good look at any artist within the "black" music spectrum's story, you'll find an endless supply of contradictory evidence.

The list of influences, not related to the cliches of their popular history are staggering. 
Read any interview, or biography of African American musical artists and you'll find Hank Williams, Hank Snow, George and Ira Gershwin, Frank Sinatra, the Carter Family, Bobby Darin, Mario Lanza and a host of other unlikely sources of inspiration. Tales of sitting around listening to the Grand 'ol Opry on the radio. Look at the source material for the bulk of the jazz repertoire up to the early '60's and you've got Rodgers and Hammerstein, the Gershwins,  Cole Porter and the like. I find it pretty hard to imagine these works were thrust upon the artists, as show tunes as well a classical music were highly popular nation wide. 
In many of these same interviews, bios and autos you find repetitious tales of the artist / the individual not able to partake in the reverie of their favorite musics. Young geniuses bound by the straight jacket of their supposed race. Herded into the narrow pockets of allowed forms, satisfying their biased need for the African American peoples to stay in their place.

To me Soul music is a beautiful collision between Gospel, Country, Blues, Jazz, Euro canto and one of the key ingredients, Pop. When Sam Cooke was promoted to a feature vocalist in the Soul Stirrers he drove the young women crazy with his beautiful  be boppin vocal style, flying around the notes, singing sweet as a bird. Sam shifted away from the regular vocal stylings of his contemporaries, fusing pop ideas into the mix, creating a potent new sound, becoming the first "Pop stars" in the Gospel scene. He was drawn out of the gospel music world and into the pop world. This was the 50's, soul music didn't exist, so you've got Sam and his co-producers and writers are mixing up with Mambo, Cha Cha Cha, soppy ballads standards, blues and show tunes. Yet despite all this mish mash of ideas the potency of his voice shone through, lighting the way for others to follow.

When Etta James, James Brown and others sat down with their arrangers and producers to create what they most likely would of thought as being a ballad, this was the birth of Soul Music.
When Miles Davis turned his back on the audience, that was the birth of Soul Music. Why? Because he, like Mingus and Ellington before him, said nup, I'm not living that cliche, I'm a man with a strong mind and a need to live free and grow. They had the need to break down the walls of what an African American could or couldn't do. This was the life blood of Soul, freedom. But trying to find freedom wasn't that easy, for anyone.

The other thing to remember is that in some situations, amongst musicians for example, from all backgrounds, lived and worked happily side by side. Sam and Judd Phillips, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, Jim Dickinson, Chips Moman, Johnny Otis, the Bihari Bros, the Chess Bros, Armet Ertgun, Jerry Wexler, Phil Spector, Carol King, Doc Pomus, Gil Evans, Phil Ramone and so on and on.
There was so much cross pollination going on. You had Greeks, Jews, lots of Italians, Arabs, Turks, Russians and all sorts of whiteys from every part of the world interweaving ideas, colours and inspiration.
One of the artists featured here is Dan Penn, the Memphis based songwriter and producer, who along with Chips Moman, Spooner Oldham shaped some of the most glorious music to come from the south. I've included his demo of 'It Tears Me Up' his great voice rich from soil of his upbringing. His composition 'Dark End of the Street' one of the finest moments in Soul Music is performed here by James Carr, another major soul inspiration. 
Another classic example of joyful integration is the creation of Stax Records, an Anglo American owned company, who's roster of great African American artists is that of legend. The great Otis Redding, one of its key artists is represented here with 'Cigarettes and Coffee'.
The Stax house band featured Steve Cropper, guitar god. Purveyor of some of the hottest soul licks ever put to disc, along with fellow whitey Donald 'Duck' Dunn. Add the sensational drumming of Al Jackson Jr and Booker T Jones keys and they were Booker T and the MGs, one of the greatest instrumental groups ever. They were also, along with the Bar Kays, the session players behind some of the finest tunes on the Stax / Altantic roster. The guys found a way to get there thing together, making beautiful music, in one of most militantly racist towns of its day, Memphis Tennessee. This legendary town boasted Sun Records, Meteor Records, Goldwax, Duke and Ardent, major players in the development of the Memphis soul sound, with a congregation of multi-racial musical souls, pitted together to make beautiful music, against all odds.

So not only was there fierce competition to be the best and strive for new ideas in the African American musical environments leading up to the early 60's, there was a strong influence for change within the other aforementioned peoples.
So Soul music, to me, is all these things. Yes it was the music that sprang from the Civil Rights Movement, a new musical form for a downtrodden people, but it was also a springboard for new forms of expression.
In the liner notes for the Richard Berry comp 'Have Louie Will Travel' Berry talks about wanting to go beyond Doo Wop and street corner music. He had new ideas and ways of fusing musics that the label just didn't want to hear about. He pushed hard to get his vision out. The sound in his head, vocally at least, was a part of the procession marching towards the new Soul style.

I've included artists such as Nina Simone, who I feel encouraged singers to go to new heights, a deep soulful expression, which you couldn't copy, impossible, but she was a major inspiration. The great Nat 'King' Cole, also a formidable presence in America from the 30's to the 60's. Breaking a well enforced rule by having his own television show. Allowing an African American artist/person to be represented as a strong individual, holding great talent and style, one that can host his own show just like any other galoot. Nat 'King' Cole may have had a heapin' helpin' of smaltz poured over some of his later and more successful songs, but what everyone was listening to was the voice, the way he could go beyond blues or jazz into new colours of sound.
Then there's Harry Belafonte, the Calypso singing, Hollywood acting star and activist, who somehow shaped an outstanding career against all odds, but more relevantly a voice that could be transcendent, once again shifting the focus away from the cliche, being a strong individual artist.

I've included some great key vocalists of the Doo Wop / vocal group genre, some of the great singers of the 50's who also shaped the upcoming style. Diverting their approach from the R and B and Gospel growl, individually creating their own take. You've got Jackie Wilson, a true giant, Clyde McPhatter, again, General Norman Johnson of the Showmen, an extremely individual singer who went on to lead the Chairmen Of The Board in the 60's. You've got the Clovers, the Moonglows, Harvey Fuqua's legendary ensemble which at one stage featured a young Marvin Gaye, plus the Impressions, lead by the great Curtis Mayfield. The Impressions created their own very unusual, yet potent style of music which was highly influential. You'll find many references in music bios of other artists that speak of the influence of the Impressions vocal ideas, as well as guitarists sighting Curtis Mayfield's playing as a huge influence.

James Brown, Godfather of Soul, is represented here in a delicious slice of over the top strings, enveloping a ballad of gorgeous depth, with James and the Flames introducing the world to a new kind of pop music, a whole new thing. But James will be the first to admit that his style didn't come out of a vacuum. James adored both Little Willie John and the Five Royales, label mates of JB on King Records in Cincinnati, with much of the early Flames sound based on the Royales. Then there's Little Willie John, cheezus, could the guy sing? Five foot and a bit, but it always sounds like the microphone diaphragms are just about to pop. And as you'll see here, a strong sign of what was to come.

Some other artists of great import are included here, singers like Bobby 'Blue' Bland, who's enormous talent was too much to be held by the Blues, or any style. He was an innovator, an individual. He was able to cross-over into the pop charts with his infectious delivery.
Johnny Ace, another son of Memphis Tennessee, created a distinctive new style in Rhythm and Blues, with a soul edge. His life was cut short in '54 at the tender age of 25. His almost mythological legend resonates to this day. 
Etta James, who kicks of this comp, is one of the great legends of soul music history. Hers is a voice that both captures the depth of her deep pain and sorrow, as well as it being a transcending force of great beauty. The hard knocks she received from day one and the dark road she traveled would have destroyed most people, but Etta continued on making fantastic music through the 60's and 70's, always on the cutting edge of new styles.
Percy Mayfield, another potent force in the shaping of soul, like Charles Brown and Ray Charles, shifting away from their idiom, creating new forms.

The name of this comp is Soul Stirrers, the best I could come up with, being 'kind of' what I wanted to say. I also feel Sam Cooke and his position as a major breakthrough artist makes him the center of this mix.  Once again, nobody could sing like him, but the influence he had on thousands of singers to follow has been enormous. He paid dearly for both his departure from the sanctified Gospel Music tradition, burning many bridges with family and friends, as well the price of fame. At the time of his death in '64 Sam was producing and writing for young artists as well as being strongly involved in the Civil Rights Movement. According to Wikapedia "fatally shot by the manager of the Hacienda Motel in LA at the age of 33. At the time, the courts ruled that Cooke was drunk and distressed, and that the manager had killed Cooke in what was later ruled a justifiable homicide. Since that time, the circumstances of his death have been widely questioned." If you read Hit Men by Fredric Dannen you see that at the time corruption in the music industry was so rife that there is possibilities of something a little more underhanded than the stated account. But even the original justification, if that was fair justification for murder, that he was black and distressed? 
Sam Cooke left behind an anthem of hope, born of great despair, with 'A Change is Gonna Come', just as with Billie Holiday before him with 'Strange Fruit'.

So here we have it 'Soul Stirrers' featuring some key protagonists who led the way towards a glorious musical revolution. As we entered into the '60's artists such as Solomon Burke, Barbara Lewis, Wilson Pickett, O.V. Wright, Ben E King, Lou Rawls, Bobby Womack, Martha Reeves, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Al Green  and a host of others shaped the art form, creating wonderful new variations into the future.

                      The Link

1. Etta James - Anything to Say You're Mine - Chess
2. Johnny Ace - Saving My Love For You - Duke
3. Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come - RCA
4. Otis Redding - Cigarettes and Coffee - Stax / Volt
5. James Carr - Dark End Of The Street - Goldwax
6. Clovers, the - Blue Velvet - Atlantic
7. Showmen, the - 39-21-40 Shape - Charley / Minit
8. Five Royales, the - This is Dedicated to the one I Love - King
9. Impressions, the - Minstrel and Queen - ABC / Kent 
10. Harry Belafonte - All My Trials - RCA
11. Soul Stirrers, the - Touch the Hem of His Garment - Specialty
12. Richard Berry - Somewhere There's a Rainbow - Flip
13. James Brown - Prisoner of Love - King
14. Dominos, the - The Bells - King
15. Nina Simone - I Put a Spell on You - Phillips
16 Little Willie John - You Hurt Me - King
17. Nat King Cole - Mona Lisa - Capitol
18. Moonglows, the - Sincerely - Chess
19. Percy Mayfield - Send Me Someone To Love - Specialty
20. Bobby Bland -  Cry Cry Cry - Duke
21. Dan Penn - It tears me up - ACE
22. Eddie Bo - It Must Be Love - Ric
23. Barbara Lewis - Hello Stranger - Atlantic
24. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - What's So Good About Goodbye - Tamla Motown
25. O.V. Wright - I'll Take Care Of You  - Backbeat
26. Rev. Lonnie Harris - What Mother Can Do -